How play boosts your creativity and resilience | Katina Bajaj
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
When was the last time you just ... played? Creative health scientist Katina Bajaj thinks adults are in a "play deprivation crisis," where we've replaced our fun-loving human nature with optimization and efficiency. She makes the case that play isn't a reward for productivity but rather a survival skill — and invites you to rediscover the freedom of not knowing where something will end up.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:09.2 | I'm your host, Elise Hugh. |
| 0:11.1 | I have always enjoyed watching my kids play, and as they get older, I think about the fact that most of us don't play enough. |
| 0:19.6 | I think most of us probably feel this way. What we may |
| 0:22.5 | not know, however, is what that's actually costing us. I know this might not seem like a big deal. |
| 0:28.1 | Like we're just having less fun, but it's deeper than that. We are living through a play deprivation |
| 0:35.0 | crisis. We've systematically removed everything that makes play what it is, |
| 0:40.1 | the spontaneity, the freedom, the wonder, |
| 0:42.9 | from all parts of adult life and replaced it with efficiency and achievement. |
| 0:47.3 | Clinical psychologist Katina Bajaj has spent the last decade |
| 0:51.8 | studying the science of play in people's lives. |
| 0:55.2 | What she found reframed everything she thought she knew. |
| 0:58.6 | In her talk, she shares what play actually is, |
| 1:01.5 | why so many of us have lost it, |
| 1:03.6 | and the three surprisingly simple places to bring it back. |
| 1:07.4 | Play isn't something we age out of. |
| 1:10.0 | It is a lifelong trait, which means no matter how |
| 1:13.2 | invisible it might feel, we can always restore it. That's coming up right after a short break. |
| 1:26.1 | And now our TED Talk of the Day. |
| 1:29.1 | When I was eight years old, I had this ritual. |
| 1:32.8 | After I finished my homework, I'd head upstairs to my room, turn on my favorite Christina Aguilera CD, and sit on the floor, surrounding myself with all this stuff that was supposed to make me playful. I'd take out my |
| 1:45.8 | barbies one by one, spread out my markers in every color. And then I'd wait. And I'd wait. |
... |
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